response to a question and i'm sure i could state it more clearly and more effective way than i did in a setting like that. >> the white house responds. >> when you're president of the united states, you are president of all the people. not just the people who voted for you. do americans feel better off than they were four years ago? an exclusive first look at our new nbc news/"wall street journal" poll with chuck todd. bob woodward on the price of politics. his book examining the obama presidency. and the state of the campaign. and a major military change in afghanistan. the u.s. suspends joint operations with afghan troops after more deadly insider attacks on our forces. and will and kate, win a big victory against that photographer in a frens french court today. how do you stop the internet? good day. i'm andrea mitchell live in washington. the romney campaign is struggling today to deal with

words from the candidate himself. statements made at a private fund-raiser in boca raton, florida, last may, secretly videotaped without the governor's knowledge.

>> and governor romney also joked at that fund-raiser about the fact that his father was born in mexico, but not necessarily in a way that would help him win over hispanic voters. >> joining me now for our daily fix chris cizilla, and manager editor of politics.com and chuck

todd white house chief correspondent and political director for nbc news and host of "the daily rundown," a lot of titles chuck, and nbc national investigative correspondent michael is cough. welcome, all. chuck, let's talk with you and chis about the politics of this. talk to michael about where we got it from huff post, mother jones, and we all getting this video tape. chuck, the political fallout initially. >> look, it's -- i mean you see that, obviously, the campaign is concerned about it. they wouldn't have called the late night press conference last nig night. it seems as fe they didn't know what to say. they had to say something but it wasn't fully sure what they needed to say. romney basically said i didn't say anything i disagree with. i said it inartfully hoping it would tie it over. the concern has to be now, you see that he is getting a lot of critical press from

conservatives. people like bill crystal, many even moderate republican leaning columnists if you will, conservative center right columnists like david brooks and then you have the thing that he has to fear the most, linda mcmahon is the first one i've seen, a republican senate campaign in connecticut how many republicans start trying to distance themselves from this remark. >> bill crystal calling it i believe arrogant and stupid. >> yeah. >> as well. this initially started with eric ericsson back during occupy a year ago. suggesting i'm of the 53%, not of the 47% who supposedly don't pay taxes. now, glen kessler has given mitt romney's comments three pinocchios today. david brooks as well and others pointing out that he just doesn't have the facts right, chris cizilla, as to who pays taxes. >> talking about federal income taxes, 46.4% of people but that exempts lots of people. there are people who pay

property tax, but don't pay income tax, older folks. it's not -- it's a talking point that has been kicking around conservative circles for some time. this is not new. it is not, in fact, born out by the facts. what mitt romney is doing here is something we've seen mitt romney do before. it's what all politicians do to an extent, what he does more than others, he tends to say what he thinks his audience wants to hear. who is he talking here? $50,000 person fund-raiser, wealthy people buy and large and this sense that the wealthy are the ones paying the freight for nerve this country. unfortunately, when things like this come out, the white house did the smart thing which is to say the president believes he should be the president for the whole country, reinforces everything that people think negatively already about mitt romney and that's why -- >> this goes to the problem where i think the bigger problem for romney, it's so cynical. >> yes. >> that, you know, there is no optimism in this at all. there is no attempt -- you're going, boy, you have already

conceded that there's just -- you're never -- if you get in here, going to get in by the skin of your teeth and you're going to be forced to govern by the skin of your teeth. >> let me just point out -- >> that candidates in the past, including barack obama in 2008, running in pennsylvania, in the primary against hillary clinton, was caught by the same kind of hidden audio, not video, hidden audio in a san francisco fund-raiser, this is what he had to say and still haunted by these comments. let's listen. >> i want to bring michael isikoff in this. the press spokesman, the spres secretary for mitt romney, the campaign, said mitt romney wants to help all americans struggling in the obama economy.

she put out this statement. that from getcho. michael isikoff, let's talk about the providence of this. how is this recorded, where was it recorded? we understand you've done a lot of investigating of this. there is the grandson of a former president involved. >> absolutely. there's actually quite a fascinating backstory to this video. it's made at the home of a private equity mogul in boca raton. marc leder, big romney donor, contributed over $200,000 to the romney super pac. by somebody who's there, using a concealed digital camera on a piece of furniture, just 20 feet

away from romney. i've spoken to the source who made the video, the source insists that there's no political motivation there. simple curiosity to see what romney would say in this unscripted setting. when the source went back and replayed the video, there were aspects of it that the source concluded the public should know about and the source posted one piece of this video last month on youtube under a phony name, relating to discussion romney had about investing in a company in china when he was at bain capital. that is noticed by a political researcher by the name of james carter iv, who is the grandson of former president jimmy carter. and had been doing research on romney and bain capital as well and he tracks down the youtube poster villa twitter and

encourages that video, the source, to let the full video out. now what's really interesting, of course, is that carter connection. james carter iv calls himself a partisan democrat, although not working for the obama campaign, but out to help democrats in any way he can, but he's got a personal connection to this. he doesn't like what mitt romney has been saying about his grandfather. he says, i don't like criticism of my family, it got under my skin, so he has a double motivation, if you will, for doing something to embarrass mitt romney. the final kicker to this is, just this morning, at 7:16 a.m., james carter iv got an e-mail from one jimmy carter, the former president, saying this -- this is extraordinary. congratulations. es clamation point. we have a copy of the e-mail. >> michael isikoff on the backstory. talk about the nbc news/"wall street journal" poll, chuck,

this comes at a time, not have been captured in the poll, when the polling shows that president obama is inching ahead. >> he is. we have two numbers we're releasing right now that talk about sort of the state of the economy and what people think. we have do you think it's compared to four years ago when barack obama became president are you better off or worse off or the same. look at the numbers. 38% say better off, 41% worse off, 21% say the same. a month ago, the better off number was 31%. a seven-point jump. >> this is the bill clinton bump? >> look, i've talked to a lot of people. think about what's gone on with the economic numbers over the last couple weeks. two intervening events. one was a really poor, awful, no good jobs report, well that wouldn't give anybody any optimism and the other was the democratic convention. and who made that long case for look, it may not feel good yet, but this is the right path. who is making that argument more so than the president? it's bill clinton. it's hard not to look at this as the bill clinton bump.

>> two other events that have taken place which have had an impact on the stock market as well which makes people feel better. resolutions of some of the conflicts, not all, in europe. >> and the federal reserve. >> and the bernanke effect. >> look at those numbers and say, well, 41% still say we're worse off. i will tell you that in talking to the obama folks they will take that every day and -- >> best number they've had. >> it's never going to be 60% better off, 40% worse off. just the economic situation is such. but the key is that better off/worse off number if it is a draw it says barack obama has done what he can do and let's give him more time. >> the movement was among not just democrats, yes a lot of sort of on the fence democrats who now rallied in but a movement among independents too. >> that's interesting. the other number you're releasing is, who do you think is better prepared to lead the country for the next four years. >> the other question. and in this one it's a pretty big lead for the president. double digits. 11 points, obama 47%, romney

36%. it's sort of -- it's one of these things, is this see meant drying? you know, there's still the debates. we were at this point in time i could argue and look at our poll and see comparisons to 2004, it is striking how similar the place that mitt romney is in now and john kerry was eight years ago. and john kerry made a move at the debates and this became a very close election in 2004. that opportunity is there for mitt romney. but right now, he is behind. there's no other way to describe. >> i would quickly add to chuck's point, mitt romney on the numbers, economy, right track/wrong track, you would think he would be winning this. >> i talk to republicans who say he should be winning -- he should be ahead let alone not even. here he is behind. >> you would say the republican is winning. s. >> thank you all very much. thanks to mike isikoff for all of your reporting. joining me, john se knew knew, former chief of staff to george

h.w. bush, senior adviser to the romney campaign. >> how are you, andrea? >> i am well. >> happy tuesday. >> happy tuesday to you. i'm wondering what your reaction is to these developments, the release of the tape, mitt romney's response to it, the criticism, factual criticism of what he said, including from many republican supporters? >> let me tell you my take on it. my take is that you're missing the big story, which is this is in response to a president, the first president in my lifetime, who's decided to run a campaign on class warfare and it's obama who has opened up the class warfare issue. he attacks success. he says we need to get ahold of more money out of the rich. and he condemns those who have succeeded with you didn't build it. and mitt romney quantifies this, the constituency that obama has been pandering to in policy and language as 47/47 and all of a sudden you make that the story. the story is, we have a

president who in his primary against hillary clinton made race a divider and she said shame on you, obama. and in his race against mitt romney is trying to make class warfare a divider and you ought to be saying shame on you, obama. >> let me ask you about what david brooks wrote today, who has been a down the middle columnist -- >> david? david is the -- is the -- republican leaning -- go ahead. >> without getting into -- >> but don't categorize him. you started to categorize him and i don't accept the categorization. >> let me read from his column. he writes, it suggests that he, mitt romney, doesn't really know much about the country he inhabits. who are these freelodsers? the iraq war veteran that goes to the va, the student getting a loan to go to college, the retiree on social security or medicare? it suggests romney doesn't know much about the culture of america.

the entitlement state has expanded but america remains one of the hardest working nations on earth. the people who receive the disproportionate share of government spending are not big government lovers, republicans, senior citizens, white men with high school degrees. the tax policy center which is nonpartisan backs this up, showing that people who are getting these benefits are largely white people, including the majority of people on food stamps -- >> nobody said they weren't, andrea. >> and income tax credit. the suggestions certainly in what governor romney said -- >> no, it wasn't there. that word freeloader is david brooks' word and the fact is that's not what the governor put out on the table and david brooks ought to be ashamed of himself for recategorizing what mitt romney said that way. let's put this in context. you have an obama administration that flaunts a website, applauding cradled to grave dependency with julia. an obama website that encourages

people to understand that what he is for is an expansion of government so government can take care of them. mitt romney puts numbers on that and says we have a campaign in which those that support big government are on one side and those that support the private sector approach are on the other side. that's the big issue we ought to be debating. and you fall for this idea that by quantifying it as a 47/47 divide, to start with, now you got to start parsing all these things. the polls are 47/47. that's where the starting point is. and they're battling over the 6% in the middle. 90% of -- >> governor -- >> governor romney is not talking about the polls. governor, governor romney was not talking about the polls. he was talking about the 47/53, we know it came from eric ericss ericsson, we know this has been a repeated theme -- >> he was talking about the percentage of people voting for

obama. he said it. >> he's talk -- >> he has 47, i have 47. >> bill crystal, the weekly standard, today, romney seems to have contempt not just for the democrats who oppose him but for tens of millions who intend to vote for him. romney's comments like those of obama four years ago, in that piece of tape that we aired, governor, today, from his comments in 2008, romney's comments continuing with chris toll, like those of obama four years ago are arrogant and stupid. indeed has there been a presidential race in modern times featuring two candidates who have done so little over their lifetimes for our country and who has little substance about the future of our country. >> i don't support anything bill chris toll said but he has a a magazine and entitled to say it. this is a campaign about how we fix things for all americans suffering under obama. you've got 23 million

unemployed, over 8% unemployment, you have reduced the number of people who want to participate from 63% to only 58%. only 58% of america today is willing to participate in the work force. that's a disaster. >> governor, when the -- governor romney was talking at this fund-raiser admittedly did not know he was being recorded and we can talk about the ethics of all of, that we've tried to put this in context that this was sur repetitious, all candidates or many candidates tend to speak this way when speaking to special interest groups, their wealthy donors of a particular group, however, when he's talking about people who don't pay income tax, the 47%, according to the tax policy center, 44% have received elderly tax benefits, 30.4%, credits for children in the working poor, 6% exclusions for other cash transfers, 5.6% education credits, 5.1%

alternative minimum tax deductions and exempt interest. >> i don't care for the characterization of this group as an independent group. they lean towards the democrats. 90% of the taxes in america are paid by people with adjusted gross income of $66,000 or more. and what mitt romney is saying is that these people in that range are not the rich that those people in that range are the people that are in the auto industry that obama is so thrilled to tell us he saved, they are the people in manufacturing, they're the people in the information technology jobs. 66,000 adjusted gross income doesn't make you rich. >> governor sununu if mitt romney had said that -- >> they pay -- >> if mitt romney had said that at that fund-raiser in boca raton we would not be having this conversation today. and he would not be facing what many would say is a meltdown. >> hadn't snuck this stuff out you wouldn't be having this conversation today.

you ought to be talking about class war fair and this president nurtures it all the time. >> we're going to have to leave it there. i look forward to our next conversation. >> have a nice day, andrea. >> always a nice day. >> have a nice day to you. and next, scaling back. how the military is dealing with insider attacks on american troops. we're live in kabul. plus, protecting our diplomats. former ambassador nic burns next here on "andrea mitchell reports." stay with us. some laxatives like dulcolax can cause cramps. but phillips' caplets don't. they have magnesium. for effective relief of occasional constipation. thanks. [ phillips' lady ] live the regular life. phillips'. [ phillips' lady ] live the regular life. on every one of our carda reminder...ate. that before this date, we have to exceed expectations. we have to find new ways to help make life easier, more convenient and more rewarding. it's the reason why we don't have costumers.

we have members. american express. welcome in. president obama: i'm barack obamthis message.ve... anncr: he keeps saying it... mitt romney: this president cannot tell us that you're... better off today than when he took office. anncr: well... here's where we were in 2008... tv anncr: the worst financial collapse... since the great depression... tv anncr: american workers were laid off in numbers not seen... in over three decades. anncr: and here's where we are today... thirty months of private sector job growth. creating 4.6 million new jobs. we're not there yet. but the real question is: whose plan is better for you? the president's plan asks millionaires... to pay a little more... to help invest in a strong middle class. clean energy. and cut the deficit. mitt romney's plan? a new 250,000 dollar tax break for... multi-millionaires. roll back regulations on the banks that cratered the economy. and raise taxes on the middle class. president clinton: they want to go back to the same old...

policies that got us in trouble in the first place. president obama: we're not going back, we are moving forward. anncr: forward.

in afghanistan today, a rare suicide car bombing by a woman. highly unusual for that country. it has killed at least ten people, perhaps more near kabul's airport. a militant group claimed responsibility for this attack saying it was to avenge that american-made anti-islamic video. this is al qaeda in north africa urging muslims to attack

american diplomats arounds the world. atia abawi is in kabul for us. talk about what's happening in afghanistan and announced yesterday, atia, which you reported on this very dramatic change in our rules of engagement for american troops and their afghan partners. >> hi, andrea. dramatic is the perfect choice of words when it comes to this. apparently nato here in afghanistan decided to suspend joint -- most joint u.s./afghan operations in the country for fear of coalition partners lives. they say it has to it with the insider attacks we've been seeing, when afghan forces turn on their coalition partners, together with this anti-islamic movie that's been released that has caused outrage among some in the muslim world. they feel because of this movie, more afghan soldiers and police officers may turn their weapons on to american and nato soldiers. this is why they say they've suspended most of these operations. they do say it's a temporary suspension, but no matter how you look at it, this is very

drastic and dramatic because nato's mission and motto has been here, shoulder to shoulder, afghans and americans and nato forces fighting together, preparing for the end of the war, and more that two years time, but obviously this shows a big lack of trust between the afghans and the nato forces in afghanistan. andrea? >> thanks so much, atia abawi. joining me former undersecretary of state for political affairs, nicolas burns. thanks very much, nicolas. he's now, of course, with the harvard kennedy school. what is your reaction to the situation that we now face around the world, spreading protests, they claim that they are triggered by this trailer for a film that was never released but it does seem as though there is a bigger problem here for the united states abroad. >> well, andrea, obviously these attacks have taken on a life of their own. the initial cause they said last week, the extremists, and that was the film in california, but

now, i think as david ignatius of the "washington post" and others have pointed out, it seems to be that these moderate governments that were elected in places like libya and tunisia and egypt, relatively moderate governments, are under attack by much more extremist forces. the film is a pretext for those attacks. the united states, obviously, in their political spectrum attacks on the united states, they say are necessarily. of course we as americans can never justify terrorism. and i think it's important to remember what hillary clinton said last week, that terrorism can never be justified for any reason. so we've got to start, i think, arguing back in these arab countries that there is no reason whatsoever for these attacks and they should stoch and we've got to take security measures to protect our people. >> one of the things that has become a big issue is security. what about the security in benghazi? we know there were no marines in tripoli and certainly not in benghazi and questions were raised, here is victoria nuland

former ambassador to nato and your former spokesman at the state department, she's had two of your jobs, i believe, in passing. this is her comment yesterday about embassy security. >> i think what we saw last week was that in some cases, we had governments that had a lot of will to protect us, but may have overestimated the capability of the forces that they had around and had to augment. >> there are questions about whether ambassador stevens had adequate security. we know from friends he did not like to be burdened with a lot of security. we're told he did have a diplomatic security resident officer with him. can you comment on what we need to do, you know, it's always the tension between becoming a fortress and not being engaged with the people we're supposed to be serving as diplomats? >> well job number one in any

embassy or consulate is to protect your people. the state department is fund fundamentally dedicated to that. you know, andrea, the fundamental perimeter security for any embassy or consulate around the world, is the job of the host government. it was the job of the egyptian government in cairo and the libyan government in benghazi, and i know that the obama administration has made a major effort over the last week to remind those governments that's their responsibility. they have to put enough troops around our diplomatic facilities in order to protect them from these extremist mobs attacking our embassy without reason and foundation. that's obviously a major emphasis for the state department and, of course, the work of any diplomat in any place in the world is to engage with the people of that country, with the government and with other people who are influential in the political process. our diplomats cannot stop during that work but they have to take the necessary security

precautions. we've been living in an age of terrorism, an dre, as you well know, for about 20 to 25 years and all our diplomats have had to learn this balance of force protection, protecting your embassy, but also getting out and doing the job that the american people need us and expect us to do for them. >> nick, next up is this showdown over iran, we'll see it all play out at the united nations next week, benjamin netanyahu here, ahmadinejad here, this is what mitt romney had to say to telemundo in an interview yesterday about iran. >> iran is not far away from having a nuclear weapon. the prime minister of israel said he believes they will have that capability relatively soon. that's the most serious foreign policy national security threat america faces is a nuclear iran. and unfortunately we're four years closer to that then when the president took office. >> do you agree with that criticism of the way the president has handled iran, the nuclear issue and his

relationship with prime minister netanyahu? >> i don't agree with governor romney's criticism. you know, andrea i worked on the iran issue for the bush administration in the second term, and i know that president obama's policy towards iran is remarkably similar to that of president bush, if anything, president obama's been able to strengthen and toughen the policy by specifically by engournlging the eu oil sanctions and the u.s. central bank sanctions and also been able, president obama, to develop, i think, a wider and stronger international coalition against iran and i think his policy very much in line with george w. bush, of offering negotiations but being ready to sanction and being ready to use force if necessary is the right policy. it's hard to find a political leader in washington of either party who believes that we should be giving israel a green light to attack iran this autism or we should be thinking ourselves. almost everybody believes we ought to give sanctions and diplomacy more chance. i think that president obama is on the right place in iran.

>> nick burns, thank you very much, former ambassador. >> thank you. >> former undersecretary of state. >> the politico briefing. the next wave of anti-obama programming is about to come to a tv screen near you. you misare you sure?et toss. eeeee! yeah. i get all my friends' pics as soon as they take them. really? you just missed an awesome dance off between the dads. oh... wow! (laughing) you just missed the cake fight.

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maggie haberman joins me for our politico briefing. talk about this new film citizens united behind it, coming to a tv screen soon. >> it's coming to six broadcast stations and six cable networks. these are not some of the majors but say it's going to hit 130 million households. a film that seeks to capitalize on the theme of voters who were with president obama who are disappointed in him now and i think that his opponents are hoping it resonates. >> and this is, of course, part of the wave that we're expecting of big super pac spending which is now going to be, you know, it's by the door because of

citizens united and other court decisions that followed it. >> the president of citizens united said this is why he did this court case. he was blocked from doing a hillary film in 2008, the outcome of the court case that took place because of being blocked on that project and insdooeds opened the flood gates for the super pac spending you're seeing now. >> thanks so much for our politico briefing. up next a closer look at the obama white house. bob woodward's exclusive reporting up next. social security. man 1: i want facts. straight talk. tell me your plan... and what it means for me. woman 2: i'm tired of the negative ads and political spin. that won't help me decide. man 2: i earned my medicare and social security. and i deserve some answers. anncr: where do the candidates stand on issues that... affect seniors today and in the future? find out with the aarp voters' guide at earnedasay.org hut! go! here it comes! right on the numbers! boom! get it! spin!

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[ humming ] [ male announcer ] kraft macaroni & cheese. you know you love it. how damaging is the romney tape and what are the foreign policy pitfalls ahead for president obama. here to discuss all of that and his book, bob woodward author of the book "the price of politics, an account of the failed efforts of the president and congress to reach a failed bargain" as we face the so-called fiscal cliff, would have, could have, should haves, what does it tell us about president obama's leadership first what you're reporting has shown in his going head-to-head against john boehner, eric cantor and the

other republicans? >> well, there's a war in the republican party. they are in agreement. and there's a war in the democratic party and i attempt to lay south the strategies, the phone calls, sometimes hour by hour, over a three and a half year period and there were lots of good faith efforts made by obama and the republicans, but they never got it over the finish line and getting just to the one-yard line is not enough because as you well know, we face not a fiscal cliff, but a calamity if we don't get this straightened out. we've got a federal government whose balance sheet is a mess and in disarray and disorder and it can set the economy into a tailspin if it isn't repaired. >> both sides blame each other for this and getting to the bottom of it, is there something about the way president obama

leads and runs this white house and has relationships with capitol hill, that you think contributed to the failure, to the collapse? >> yes. i think he's distant. he isn't close enough to these people. it's not a matter of schmoozing. it's a matter of having substantive relationships. for instance, at one key moment in the negotiations last year, the president calls speaker boehner on the phone. this is one of the most important phone calls of his presidency, and no one else is listening, i don't have knowledge there was a secret tape and the speaker and the president -- >> if you do, please come back with that. >> yes. it would be interesting. resolve the conflict. but things should not stumble on such small issues or on a miscommunication like this, and it's unfortunate and everyone in the country is going to pay a price if we don't get this house in order. >> now, speaking of houses in order, you've got mitt romney,

hes a at a fund-raiser in boca raton and speaking and we've tried to create as much context as we've can, pointed out what the romney campaign says about this but talking about the 47% of -- who he says are obama supporters who don't pay federal income taxes, pretty clear what his intent is, and it follows what eric ericsson and others on the right have been writing about for a year now, which is inaccurate according to all the fact checking. >> yes. and i mean, put simply, it's class warfare. this half of the population isn't going to vote for me because they don't pay income tax. he made some disparaging comments that they're victims and so forth. we all know that labeling large groups of people just doesn't work. and there are people who are republicans in that group, there are -- >> most of them are republicans

according to all the data. >> well, certainly -- you know, whatever they are, it's exactly -- it's hard to measure and what stuns me about all of this is, we have a presidential campaign on this issue of are we going to fix our economy, is the government going to do the things that are necessary, and i haven't heard a plan that -- from romney or obama, they're very vague on kind of the key issue in the campaign or the issue that's going to affect people in the coming months, and if you could stabilize and make coherent our economy would be a great advantage across the political spectrum. >> and as we face, of course, all these challenges overseas, you have a lifetime in covering intelligence and politics, four decades and more in this city and around the world, we face some really big challenges as we look overseas.

we're going to be discussing that in our next segment. >> yeah. it's a dangerous world and how do you plan for it, from a policy perspective, and the reality is you can't. you can be unlucky -- jimmy, carter, the takeover of the embassy in tehran really probably sunk his presidency, or you can be lucky that these things come and go, but, you know, the intelligence world, you can't -- in a place like benghazi, how -- who's going to have the actionable intelligence to say oh there is a group here that's going to kill our ambassador who's traveling from tripoli. >> precision is not even possible. thank you very much. bob woodward. "the price of politics" is the book. another bob woodward book, another best seller, presumably, the one and only, thank you for being here today. up next, what americans need to know about the rising conflict in the middle east.

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america's already complex relationship with the muslim world appears even more tenuous as a wave of anti-american sentiment continues to erupt in countries across the middle east and north africa. we have the washington bureau chief for al arabiya news channel and jim is the president of the american institute. welcome both, old friends and colleagues. first to you, what are you seeing around the world as you look at -- there are big differences, it's not monolithic, differences between what's happening in egypt, what's happening in libya, you have different emerging democracies, tunisia, but an overall sentiment it is against the united states? >> that is latent anti-american sent missile like the traditional american support for repreessive regimes in the arab and muslim worlds. but also there's competing powers in these societies,

particularly in the societies that are in the throes of exceptional historic transitions such as libya and egypt. there you have forces especially on the extreme religion strife who are competing now with the mainstream islam brotherhood led by people like mohamed morsi and it they are using the -- this clip or video whatever you want to call it, as a pretext in their ongoing conflict to shape the future of societies like egypt and libya and it is -- it is useful for these groups to dump everything on the american boogieman. that's what is taking place. it's not the question of mobs. mobs are small and we can control them. it's the question of the political leadership, lack of political leadership, lack of resolve, lack of honesty and a lot of cynicism as we've seen in the way and behavior of mohamed morsi, the president of egypt, compared with the reaction of a very poor brittle government like in libya where they show genuine sense of sorrow, both on the official level and popular

level. >> even in yemen we had a government that tried to protect our embassy, whereas in egypt it took forever, it seemed. jim, you can understand how not only the president, but how people and the appropriators on the hill are going to say why should we give a billion and a half dollars to egypt, why should the imf forgive 5 billion of loans which president morsi needs to survive as a country. >> look, the president of egypt is in a difficult circumstance and i think hisham puts it right. we're sensitive here to our own domestic politics, israel's domestic politics. there's domestic politics in egypt. i think the president was right to be form with president morsi but at the same time understanding of the fact i know you have difficulties but you have to fix them and deal with it decisively because what's at stake here is a relationship. it's a relationship that america needs. we don't want to cut our nose to

spite our face in this circumstance. but we need to press him to act like a government, the government that he's become. he's no longer the leader of a religious opposition. he's now the head of the largest state in the arab world. he's got to grow up, act like a man and do the the president is forcing him to do. we have every right to be upset, but we have to limit that. get mad but not that mad. >> at the same time in afghanistan where our troops are at risk, you have these insider attacks. again, there is going to be a push to withdraw more rapidly. >> it's going to be terrible. what they're going to see in the next few days are the shape of things to come here. you have a lot of cynicism on the part of the after rirican government and their calculations and coalition

preparing for the withdrawal. unfortunately the nato forces are paying a price. one should be clear with the leadership of karzai and company. they should be responsible and not be cynical and use the street and engage in imaginations that they're preparing for the american withdrawal. >> i would add to this that the situation is afghanistan is dramatically different in egypt that we don't need afghanistan the way we need the relationship with egypt. they are different situations. >> egypt is critical to the security. >> it connects three civilizations, three continents, and the stability of egypt and the relationship with egypt is critical to everybody in the region, but it's critical to american interests as well. >> come back soon. thank you so much. jim zogby good to see you. we'll be right back.

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we have breaking news out of pennsylvania where the state supreme court ruled that the voter i.d. case has to go back

to the lower court for further review. at issue is whether the state can provide easy access to voters seeking i.d. cards. in the state cannot prove that, the law could stand. if not the law should be halted. a sad note here. the passing of one of this country's first environmental activists, russell train. he was one of the first leaders of the environmental protection agency and helped to create and lead the world wildlife fund. russ died at his maryland farm at the age of 92. he helped to shape environmental laws for generations to come, including the same drinking water act. he heralded from an era where republican in the great tradition of teddy roosevelt were the leading environmentalist. he was an aristocrat, i was a friend and iconoclast and

advised lisa jackson on how to use their authority to regulate carbon dioxide. a world war ii veteran, he leaves his wife and four children. that does it for us for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." hi tamron. the latest on how to explain the 47% caught on camera. the reaction is a mixed bag of doubling down to one side to others say it was a sign of arrogance from the president. one conservative joked that romney should step down for the ryan/rubio ticket. we're following the breaking news out of pennsylvania. the decision regarding that state's controversial voter i.d. law. is that a victory for democrats and some voters in that state? whoa. right? get. out. exactly! really?! [ mom ] what? shut the front door. right?

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